Nixon In China

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This was published 10 years ago

Nixon In China

By Reviewed by Michael Shmith

John Adams, Victorian Opera
Her Majesty's Theatre
Until May 23

The librettist of Nixon in China, Alice Goodman, had it right when she specified the work had to be a heroic opera, not a satire. As it happened, its composer, John Adams, agreed.

Barry Ryan descends the stairs as Richard Nixon in Victorian Opera's Nixon In China.

Barry Ryan descends the stairs as Richard Nixon in Victorian Opera's Nixon In China.Credit: Jeff Busby

The result, first performed in 1987, is a masterpiece of 20th-century opera whose musical and dramatic brilliance has only intensified. History has been kinder to Nixon in China than Richard Nixon himself.

This new production for Victorian Opera is nothing short of a triumph. Roger Hodgman's clear direction absolutely respects the work's vital heroic elements, and he balances perfectly the episodes of interior expression with the grander themes of the history, tradition and conflicting ideologies that occurred in those few astonishing days in Beijing in the winter of 1972.

Richard Roberts' simple red-curtained set and Matt Scott's highly effective lighting (good costumes, too, by Esther Marie Hayes) project the action forward and make every moment tell. Fabian Russell's direction of Orchestra Victoria shows up the clarity and dynamism of Adams' extraordinary score, but also its inner beauty and moments of reflective stillness, especially in the elegiac last act. The amplification of the main singers, however, created a few odd sonorities on opening night.

But what performances. Not a weak link. From Barry Ryan's pugnacious yet curiously and awkwardly affecting Nixon and Tiffany Speight's vulnerable and excellently sung Pat Nixon, to the formidable Mao of Bradley Daley and even more spectacular coloratura of Eva Jinhee Kong's Madam Mao.

The philosophical quietude of Chou En-lai was captured well by Christopher Tonkin, as was the leaden slyness of Henry Kissinger (the only character, by the way, who is still alive) by Andrew Collis, who doesn't have that much to sing, but is always hanging around in one guise or another.

And let's not forget the three Maoist secretaries, Sally-Anne Russell, Dimity Shepherd and Emily Bauer-Jones. Chorus, dancers (Robert Curran's choreography) were spot-on.

A great night, and a landmark for Victorian Opera.

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